Sarah Jane Williams of the UK creates custom crafted luggage, trunks and cases in incredibly unusual shapes and designs under the name Williams British Handmade. Made with elegant bridle leather and hand-forged metal work by Joe Macneil of Macneil Metalcraft, these bespoke pieces from Sarah Williams are both unusual and beautiful.
Sarah set out to create a collection of original and fashionable artifacts utilizing historical and traditional methods of craftsmanship. Incorporating solid brass frames, trim and badging, the high quality leather pieces are entirely saddle-stitched by hand.
Day case with milled brass frame, trim and hardware: Briefcases with milled brass fittings and frames: Each case is embellished with an engraved brass badge: Luggage trunks with solid brass frames and trim: Picnic case with solid brass frame, locks and trim: Satchels: Various other cases: Sarah Jane Williams poses with one of her trunks: above image courtesy of Centurion MagazineOther Images courtesy of Sarah Jane Williams and Joe Macneil.
The UK's Baddeley Brothers is an engraving and printing house that was established in London in 1859. Known for their elegant craftsmanship, they manufacture high quality, engraved stationery and envelopes.
Recently, they teamed up with Studio Glithero who filmed the design presses and envelope folding machines at Baddeley Brothers as they created 5 specially designed paper airplanes for this year's handmade issue of Wallpaper* Magazine.
The magazine commissioned the work for its annual 'Handmade' issue, which features creative products from the world's best designers and manufacturers, as well as the Wallpaper Handmade exhibition at the Brioni Palazzo in Milan.
The Airplane Shape The paper size is optimised at just under A4 at 249mm x 206mm. The shape is based on the classic dart design. The plane is made up of seven folds plus the valley fold which is the middle and first fold. A further customisation of the plane can be made by bending the rear tips of the wings upwards.
Baddeley Brothers has also printed the invite and envelope for the exhibition opening, bringing its craftsmanship and techniques to a European audience of designers and art-lovers.
The following text and video are from Wallpaper* magazine: Paper planes, by Studio Glithero and Baddeley Brothers
The duo behind Studio Glithero have created a niche for themselves as self-documenting designers, creating beautiful objects, as well as films to show exactly how they did it (watch it here).
We were cock-a-hoop when they signed up as collaborators for Handmade this year, and even more so when they suggested working with London-based letterpress printers Baddeley Brothers. But even we were surprised how far they flew with our simple fleet of paper planes idea, creating not only five stunning designs, exquisitely die-stamped and embossed by Baddeley Brothers, but also this short film that might leave you crying into your cappuccino.
Studio Glithero Founded by Sarah van Gameren and Tim Simpson, who studied together at London’s Royal College of Art, Studio Glithero is known for its time-based installations, which give birth to unique products and stunning films focusing on the creative process.
Baddeley Brothers Since 1859, and through five generations of the original family, Baddeley Brothers (currently Chris and Charles Pertwee) has been a skilled purveyor of stationery and traditional printing techniques, from copperplate to foil letterpress, all produced at its east London workshops.
In the past year, several sites (Treehugger, Toxel and Neatorama to name a few) have shown images of the asian art of leaf carving and more recently the Gblog from Gessato via lost at e minor, posted about the leaves again which got me wondering if you could have custom images made (the answer is yes, as you will see later in this post).
The tacky artworks have their kitsch appeal especially when it comes to using them to showcase religious and celebrity imagery.
Whether it's the Virgin Mary, Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Victorian Silhouettes or a tourist leaf selling Amish Country, the carved leaves seem to elicit a certain fascination.
Custom Carved Leaves You can actually have custom ones made from a photo or purchase previously carved leaves for about $25.00 from several sites (links at the end of this post).
How Do They Do It? The Sixty Step Process
above: Huang Taisheng, master leaf carver at work
Creating leaf art is a long and complex process. Leaves are put through a 60 step process such as, manually cutting and removing the outer surface of the leaf while leaving the leafs veins intact which add detail into the subject matter of the carving. Pressing, curing and dying are also just a few of the steps needed to prepare the leaf.
Talented artist using magnifying glass, then skillfully carve their masterpiece by hand. No painting or printing is involved. The most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree, which is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves closely resemblance the leaf of a maple tree:
Where To Buy Them: Several websites will make custom leaf carvings from your own photo or sell already carved leaves in various Western and Asian themes.
